AAP and the BJP

'First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.'

MK Gandhi

If viciousness of attacks is borne out of intense fear then the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party clearly unnerved the BJP. For a party which had hoped that the public disgust with a grossly corrupt administration would make it a natural claimant to power, this pretender on the block came as a shock.

Once the growing buzz around AAP made it difficult for the BJP to maintain its haughty disdain for this gate-crasher, it unleashed the worst form of calumnious attacks on the former, ironically resembling the ad hominem attacks which it itself has till now been subject to from the ‘secular’ establishment. At one level, the BJP proclaims that shrill attacks on Narendra Modi, rather than impacting his popularity, enhances it. If that be the case, why has it adopted a similar line of offense against AAP?

No issue was too trivial to be raised, no stick to hollow to beat with - be it the supposed three voter registrations for Arvind Kejriwal, his so-called betrayal of Anna or the ‘wealth’ of the AAP candidates. Some leaders even tried to project the pendency of some criminal cases against AAP’s top leaders as a proof of the latter’s duplicity!

The BJP’s reaction to AAP has been more like that of a spoilt brat which believes that some usurper has snatched away its birthright. A little introspection would probably make it realize that AAP gained traction because the BJP spectacularly failed to fulfill its duties. That the BJP did not become a natural beneficiary of the Anna movement was symptomic of the middle class’s lack of trust in the party and its leaders. Those professionals, who are now volunteering for the AAP were at one time the natural constituency of the BJP and if they are no longer with it today, no one else but the BJP itself is to blame.

It is amusing that a supposed ‘right-of-centre’ party with an agenda to reform business and governance has an issue with some candidates being well off! Or is it that they believe that it glorious to be poor so long as they themselves do not lie among ‘glorified’ masses? Or is it that they believe that the middle and upper middle classes should not aspire to join politics at all?

The chatter around criminal cases against Arvind Kejriwal and a few other AAP leaders are yet again a warning to all those who bemoan the criminalization of politics simply because some ADR report lists the criminal cases against candidates. In our quest for instant solutions and our propensity to paint everything with the same brush, we miss the point that public agitations invariably result in criminal cases being lodged. If some sections of our public continue with this mindless quest of getting all people with any pending criminal cases debarred from contesting elections, we run the risk of turning the country into a completely closed cozy club, run by a handful of entities who will ensure that while their crimes never result in any complaints, any challenger gets defeated by the application of law.

True, the AAP is not God’s gift to India.

The way the party has used ‘participative psephology’ to increase its salience is hypocritical and amounts to befooling the public. Its agenda, to a very large extent, does not seem to differ from the Congress, so far as being a maai-baap sarkar is concerned. From being an ideology-agnostic party, it is slowly morphing into a me-too left-of-centre entity, ready to play the politics of appeasement with gusto. Rather than offering an institutional solution, it seems to be presenting a god in Arvind Kejriwal. And gods do not have a place in democracy.

But! It still is a party which is pushing for a strong legislation against corruption. It has a vision of public education and healthcare. It is probably the only party which talks somewhat about police reforms. And certainly the only party which does not talk of caste based reservations.

Most importantly, this is a party which carries the hope of those countless youngsters who have been working against all odds and canvassing for the party in Delhi. True, Delhi alone is not India and certainly AAP does not have similar presence across the country. But, is that reason enough to be contemptuous of those who believe that they can change India’s destiny with their efforts? 

The biggest risk which AAP runs today is its inability to live up to the hype on December 8. The vagaries of our Westminster style ‘first past the post’ system ensure that in a multi cornered contest, a party needs at least around 27%-30% of votes to come within sniffing distance of power. No one had given AAP a serious chance till they went around projecting survey results showing them on top. Unfortunately, for all the groundswell of support, the AAP may still come up short if that support does not translate into a sufficient number of votes. If the results are on expected lines, i.e., the AAP winning around 15-20% votes but failing to win more than 6-10 seats, there is a great risk of the party losing momentum and its core support base of the youth moving away from it.

With both the BJP and the Congress forming a part of the political establishment, there can be but little hope of any major reform in the way governance happens in our country. It is only when that an outsider makes an impactful entry in the political arena, can there be a real hope of a long lasting change in our polity. Yes, we run the risk of moving in a sub-optimal direction or more likely, getting unsettled by the nature of change. But, if status quo condemns us to entropy, then let there be change. If there were ever a vote cast for hope, let it be cast for this new kid on block.